[throwaway_pdp09]

Fuck, that's surreal. A bunch of totally rando questions on 16 it suddenly asked right out of nowhere whether it was a black widow spider. Very close.

So I said no, 3 questions on, total of 19, it nailed it with tarantula. That's just eerie given the total apparent irrelevance of the questions. Unsettling.

  Q20.  I am guessing that it is a tarantula?
  Right, Wrong, Close
  19.    Is it hard? No.
  18.    Is it bad for your health? No.
  17.    I guessed that it was a black widow spider? Wrong.
  16.    Would you find it on a farm? No.
  15.    Can it climb? Yes.
  14.    Does it go inside other things? No.
  13.    Do you catch it? No.
  12.    Can it make a sound? No.
  11.    Is it found in a bathroom? No.
  10.    Is it larger than a pound of butter? No.
  9.    Can you order it at a restaurant? No.
  8.    Does it live in the forest? Probably.
  7.    Is it a type of cat? No.
  6.    Is it an absolute state? No.
  5.    Would you give it as a gift? No.
  4.    Is it a type of dog? No.
  3.    Is it a vegetarian? No.
  2.    Can you hold it? Yes. 
  1.    It is classified as Animal.

[dTal]

Questions 1-5 establish immediately that it's a small, carnivorous, unpleasant animal; you go on to establish that it's inedible, forest dwelling, palm-sized, and can climb. Some sort of spider is an obvious guess. There are other possible answers (tree frog, perhaps?) but spiders rank very highly in human psychology. Your main lesson here should be that you are not as original as you think you are!

[throwaway_pdp09]

Tarantula was indeed picked as an 'easy' start as I've played this before with people.

So I guess you're right, though it's not the way a human would do it, we'd home in faster and more precisely, but still.

As you say, it kind of partitioned off the search space pretty efficiently in its own strange manner.